Things You Didn’t Know about John Lewis

09 November 2015

Things You Didn’t Know about John Lewis

From 2007, John Lewis has carved out their name as the kings of Christmas Advertising. It has been success after success with their innovative ads that manage to drive home power messages that hit us in the feelers.

This year’s ad features the idea of looking after those who are alone and it takes the guise of the man on the moon. We love the concept and have been for years enjoying John Lewis touching campaigns. It led us to want to know more about who they are and what they do? The findings won’t disappoint.

John Lewis began in 1864 with the opening of the first shop in London's Oxford Street. It has since grown into a massive brand that employee over 88,700 permanent staff. They have 45 John Lewis shops across the UK. The company is owned by the employees. The company structure is a partnership, so the profits go back to the people who work there.

In case you didn’t know, John Lewis is a department store that sells everything from electronics to clothes and they pride themselves on quality. They don’t even have a shop in Ireland but it doesn’t stop us raving about their ads. This year’s Man on The Moon video has spread across the world with close to 10 million views on YouTube alone.

The ad takes the wonder of childhood and the loneliness of many elderly people suffer at Christmas and beautifully shows the importance of taking the time to talk, reach out and just notice loneliness during the holidays. The real success of the ad lies in John Lewis associating their brand with such a powerful message . We now see them as a benevolent department store saving lives when in reality they are just selling us stuff. It campions the idea and perception we unconsciously will make with the shop.

Never once does it show us a product we can buy. It has gone far deeper and sold us hope. You can’t put a price on that kind of brand recognition.

The Agency that makes the ads with John Lewis is Adam & EveDDB. Man on the Moon was directed by Kim Gehrig through Somesuch, with post production at The Mill. It cost £1m to shoot and £6m on in-store spending and AD slots. The ad was launched on social media first and then was debuted on the first advert break of Gogglebox on Channel 4.